The need for a pen which is convenient to carry on the person and is unlikely to be forgotten so as to be available for casual use is well recognized.
The majority of ballpoint pens for everyday use have traditionally included a rigid, round or prismatic body and are commonly approximately six inches in length so as to require retention in the relatively protected environment of a pocket of an upper garment, such as the breast pocket of a jacket or shirt.
However, when changing their clothing people often forget pens when transferring other essential accessories such as pocketbooks containing credit cards, driver licenses and other essentials, particularly when continuous use of a pen is not required.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,880 issued to Sekiguchi in 1989, teaches a writing set in which two small writing instruments are stored in a flat, rectangular case having the perimetrical dimensions similar to those of a credit or business card for storage in a credit card receiving pocket of a pocket-book. However, the instruments must be removed from the case for use which can require some manual dexterity in view of their small size and close fit, also requiring the use of both hands with several items to manage, altogether an undesirably fiddly and time consuming operation. The multipart construction is inherently expensive, while the necessity of always carrying the case to protect the exposed pen tips and a pocket from damage results in an undesirably heavy and bulky structure.
Furthermore, the case has a blunt, square edge which is 2 or 3 mm thick preventing easy insertion by parting a closed mouth of a credit card receiving pocket or slipping between credit cards, which is inconvenient and frustrating and can easily result in strain of the pocket mouth.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,504, issued 1988 to Telli, teaches a ballpoint pen with a generally flat and essentially flexible outer body so that it may be carried in a back pocket of a pant/trouser type garment without breakage.
However, the essentially flexible property of the pen would often cause a leading edge to crumple or fold back on itself also preventing easy insertion in a closed mouth of a credit card receiving pocket or insertion between credit cards therein. Furthermore, pens with flexible bodies can be difficult to grip for satisfactory writing control.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,213 teaches a structure which is foldable from a flat form usable as a bookmark to a triangulate form for use as a pen, evidently of conventional length, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 322,811 and 324,879 issued both teach combination pen and bookmarkers. However, none of these prior taught structures are suitable for or suggestive of the purpose of the present invention.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a ballpoint pen which is adapted for direct storage in a credit card receiving pocket of a wallet and which is available for direct use and of simple construction, adapted manufacture using conventional mass production techniques for high volume production at low cost.